.454 Casull
Encyclopedia : 4 : 45 : 454 : .454 Casull
The .454 Casull is a cartridge, developed in 1957 by Dick Casull and Jack Fulmer. It was first announced in November 1959 by Guns and Ammo magazine. The basic design was a lengthened and structurally improved .45 Colt case. .45 Colt cartridges can fit into the .454's chambers, but not the other way because of the lengthened case. The new Casull round uses a small rifle primer rather than a pistol primer, because it develops extremely high chamber pressures of over 60,000 lbf/in² (410 MPa), and a rifle primer has a significantly stronger cup than a pistol primer. The .454 Casull can deliver a 250 grain (16 g) bullet with a muzzle velocity of over 1900 feet per second (580 m/s), developing more than 2000 ft·lbf (2,700 J) of energy. The round is primarily intended for hunting medium or large game and metallic silhouette shooting.
The recently introduced .460 Smith and Wesson cartridge has the same diameter as a .45 Colt or .454 Casull, and therefore revolvers chambered for it will also chamber the .454 Casull and .45 Colt. Until the introduction of the .460 Smith and Wesson Magnum, and the .500 Smith and Wesson Magnum, the .454 Casull was the most powerful commerically produced handgun round on the market.
Cultural references
- In the movie Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, the character Harley Davidson used a "custom Ruger Blackhawk conversion" in .454 Casull towards the end of the film.
- In the anime Hellsing, the character Alucard uses an oversized Hellsing ARMS .454 Casull Auto as his primary weapon. The gun fires custom .454 Casull explosive steel bullets with silver cores, crafted from a melted silver cross from the Lancaster Cathedral, designed to kill vampires.
- The Casull family in the manga and anime Scrapped Princess share their surname with this particular cartridge.
- In the movie Alien Nation (1988) Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes (James Caan) carries a .454 Casull for a side arm after an altercation with a newly settled alien results with Det. Sgt. Sykes injured and his partner dead.
- In the videogame Fallout Tactics the player can find a 'Casull Revolver', however, it uses regular .45 cartridges.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.